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sixtyfourk · 3 years

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HI IT'S ME 1) Clora ofc 2) UHHH Clive finds Flora before professor layton does AU 3) the floor is yours

*Luke voice* IT’S YOU!

ajdhk thank you so much for asking me about this AU; it’s one of my favourites. I started writing something short that turned into something long-ish (~2k words), so it’s probably too long to post as a Tumblr post. I’m going to finish it up and put it on Ao3 instead, hopefully tonight or tomorrow. For now, though, here’s my plot summary/current ideas for the AU; if I ever manage to write this as a multichapter, this will be the basic plot (although things will probably change a lot as I write it).

1: For whatever reason, Layton never received/didn’t respond to Lady Dahlia’s letter. Dahlia then had to send letters out to other people that she thought would possibly be able to take care of Flora. Since she knew of Layton through reading newspapers from London, she found out Clive’s name from seeing an article written by him in the London Times.

2: Clive, at this moment, isn’t wealthy. After Constance died, he (seemingly) was only left with the house and no money at all. He needs to work for a living, which is one of the reasons why he gets his job as a reporter, in addition to looking for information about who was responsible for the Institute explosion. He draws plans for his Mobile Fortress in a notebook as a way to cope with strong feelings, but he doesn’t have the means to actually build it at this time. That’s partly why he came to search for the Golden Apple--to fund his plans for revenge.

(This detail about Clive not being rich at this time was inspired by one of the “Pink and Blue” Clora drabbles on Ao3!)

3: Baron Reinhold and Constance Dove used to be friends, long before either Clive or Flora were born. After Dahlia made the connection between Clive and Constance, this is why Dahlia assumed that Clive would have the means to take care of Flora.

4: Flora wants to be able to explore the world on her own, but Dahlia and the other robots won’t let her leave if they think she isn’t going to be taken care of. This is why she asks Clive if she can come with him: at least, this is what she tells him. (She might be trying to escape her past and complicated feelings toward the village by trying to help Clive solve his own, more obvious problems).

5: Clive never saw Flora’s birthmark while in the village, and neither of them understand its connection to the Reinhold treasure.

6: It turns out that Constance didn’t mean to leave Clive penniless. Similarly to Baron Reinhold, she left a treasure for Clive: the beginnings of Future London, already constructed below ground. However, because she died very suddenly, she didn’t have time to finish setting up the puzzle before she died, and was unable to tell Clive about this. Flora helps Clive discover the puzzle, and they work on developing Future London together after they discover it.

7: Clive and Flora discover who was responsible for the Institute explosion together; however, they get attacked by Bill Hawks’ thugs, just like how Layton was. They get out fairly unscathed, but Clive thinks that Flora should go back to St. Mystere so that she won’t get hurt again (this is what the oneshot will be about).

#clora #clora tangled au #I don't have a better name for the au yet so that's still its tag #this au is so self-indulgent ugh...#yes this is supposed to still be for the 'three sentence' meme #pajcali #answered asks #layton AUs

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sixtyfourk · 3 years

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🌹!

Ahh, thank you! This is from an angsty Clora thing that might be day 6 of Clora week, if I can get it done in time.

A hand brushes against his cheek. It’s warm, and soft, and it breaks him out of his trance. He turns toward it; the effort is almost exhausting, but he has to answer her; he hates himself, for ignoring her for so long. He tries to think of something intelligent to say, but a quiet “Flora,” is all he can manage.

#clora #my fanfiction #I thought that I'd gotten lots of writing done #but most of it was either planning #or a paragraph here or there that never turned into a real wip #so I had to hurry and write something good-ish haha #pajcali #answered asks #you made me write a lot more so thank you!#it was supposed to be the romantic cliche of kissing in the rain but I don't know if that's going to happen ashfjka #it's more of a hurt/comfort thing right now

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sixtyfourk · 3 years

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001 you know me I gotta ask for Clive/Flora :3

I was hoping you would... :D Thank you for indulging me, and I’m sorry for this essay ^^

when I started shipping it if I did:

Long story… I was playing through all of the PL games this spring for the first time in years, and found myself really liking Flora, far more than I’d ever liked her when playing the games as a kid. Then, when I got to UF, I found myself getting really attached to Clive as well. Not only did I love both characters, but I really liked their interactions; I’d been getting upset about how much Flora was left behind, and lo and behold, “Future Luke” tells Luke that Flora should be included on the adventure, and that she’s allowed to be excited, etc.

Clive kept on sticking up for Flora, and they seemed to get along really well (not to mention all of the cute little moments they had together, like on the stairs to the Thames Arms), and I was getting really invested in their relationship. Then Clive went completely off the rails, and even though I knew this was coming, I honestly felt as upset and confused as Flora did. I wanted to hear his apology, and I wanted to see more out of a relationship that I felt had so much promise.

my thoughts:

I absolutely love Clora; I haven’t been this excited about a ship in a long time. I adore both characters, and the similarities in their backgrounds are just perfect for writing about; they have so much to bond over. They have a really cute and wholesome dynamic in UF, before they really knew each other, and I love the idea of that continuing and developing into something deeper as they slowly get to know the real versions of each other.

At first, Flora’s angry and confused, and Clive is lost in self-hate and regret; he’s just messed up so much already, and there’s no way that he can ever apologize correctly. But Flora just refuses to give up on getting the closure she needs, and just keeps on coming back until she gets it. They’ve got the perfect balance of in-game hints where the pairing isn’t pulled out of nowhere, and also open-endedness where there’s lots to explore as a writer.

I think they’d definitely need a lot of time before ever starting a romantic relationship. While there were little hints at the ship in the game (I think), romance was the farthest thing from Clive’s mind at the time (I don’t think he’d ever been interested in anything of the kind before), and it was Flora’s first proper adventure. Their falling-out in the game really solidifies the fact that they need a lot of time to process things and get to know each other all over again. I’d want them to become good solid friends first before going anywhere near romance. After that, though... ugh, the mutual pining would be so good, ahhh...!

What makes me happy about them:

So much. I really love how on the surface, Flora is the “cute” one and Clive is the “prickly” one, but really, they aren’t that different. Flora has a lot of issues and a lot of pain in her past like Clive, and Clive also gets deeply attached to other people (especially his family) like Flora does. I think that they have so much potential to help each other open up and deal with the difficulties from their pasts, and support each other when the other is going through a rough time. And honestly, they’re just really adorable together. They’ve got such a nice mix of sweetness and angst, and I just love thinking and writing about them.

(Also they’re holding hands in one of the end credits scenes...! I so rarely ship anything with any canon evidence, so that, and all of Clive’s little “Don’t worry, Flora” comments in the game just make me really happy).

What makes me sad about them:

Hhh…. I just think that Clive messed things up SO bad. He messed up from the beginning. It’s not even just the kidnapping part; that could probably be (generously) explained by Clive suddenly deciding that he didn’t want Flora to get stomped by the Mobile Fortress (although he should have told her/just not used the Mobile Fortress, but okay). It’s that he was pretending to be “Future Luke” all along, and, due to Flora’s past of having people she cares about replaced by lookalikes (Dahlia replacing her mom, herself being replaced by Don Paolo (and Luke gleefully showing her the Flora mask on the train ride home!), and less traumatically, Don Paolo replacing the professor), I think that “Big Luke” suddenly turning into “Clive” would be really upsetting for her.

Despite all of that, though, all Flora asked for was an apology--and then the two of them never get to talk again. I don’t know… I’m just sad that they seemed to get along so well before, and if Clive had been able to say sorry right then, maybe they could have parted on better terms than they did, just like Clive and the professor got to. Instead, we don’t get any apology or closure. Flora deserved an apology.

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Ugh, SO many things. There’s about 100 stories with both characters tagged on ff.net, and I can only really recommend about ten of them. At best, it’s a generic “bad boy/good girl” dynamic, or Clive is suddenly super nice and Flora is incredibly ditzy, and at worst, Clive’s abusive. (please don’t read the earliest ff.net stories, no matter how desperate you get.)

Admittedly, people are very critical of Clora at the best of times, so I feel like there’s a higher standard for it than there are for other pairings. I just feel like Flora often gets written as the “everygirl,” sort of as a reader-insert that gets to date Clive. Or, Clive is a total woobie who gets immediately forgiven by Flora with no resistance at all. Honestly though, as long as it’s obvious that someone is trying their best to keep them in-character and on equal footing, I would be happy to read anyone’s take on them. They are a difficult pair to write, I think, so I don’t expect anyone to get it perfect (since there really is no perfect way to write them).

things I look for in fanfic:

Ideally? Just like 10 Years. The slow burn, the hard work to earn forgiveness, the friendship, the attention to their similarities, the acknowledgement of both of their traumas… boy, I will never stop recommending that story. I’m so glad it exists; it’s given me so many ideas and it addresses all of the things that make me feel bad about the pairing.

Outside of that fic… I just want acknowledgement of what Clive did wrong, him working to fix it, and them starting to understand each other and grow fond of each other. (Also… lots of angst and hurt/comfort, haha, but that’s me with every type of fanfic). Conversely, I’d like to just see them doing cute things together or going on an adventure without talking about the past constantly as well; once the apology is over, they don’t have to constantly return back to the past. I feel like Clora is a super good candidate for slow burn as well; I loved it in 10 Years and I’d love to see another take on it.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

Honestly no one… when I really like a ship, I can’t multiship without getting sad, haha… :’)

My happily ever after for them:

I’ve got several different AUs for them, but for one of them, I’d like to see them get married and move to St. Mystere. They can work together and take over Bruno’s job of repairing the robot residents and take care of the village. They’d visit and be visited by the professor and the rest of the family frequently, but I think that they’d both be happier away from London. I think Clive interacting with the Reinholds would be really funny too, haha… I do have a longer story I still want to write too, though, so my ideas for a happy ending for them may change a lot as I write.

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

It’s a 60-40 split, with Flora being the little spoon slightly more.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

I think they try to learn how to be good cooks together. Flora was never good, obviously, but I think that Clive also only knows how to cook the basics (lazy rich kid). Once Clive starts living with the professor, though, he realizes that it’s pretty much going to be up to him to feed this family, because the professor forgets to cook, Flora’s bad at it, and Alfendi’s a baby. He starts to work at getting better, and Flora decides to practice more too, and they wind up competing with each other. They also use each other as test subjects for the food they want to give to the professor (it’s okay if they give each other food poisoning, but the professor? Perish the thought!) By the time Alfendi’s a little kid, they’re both half-decent, but still make fun of each other’s cooking, and Alfendi will pick a side with whoever he’s feeling more charitable towards at the time.

They also have unscheduled midnight tea time at least once a week. Clive doesn’t sleep a lot, and Flora wakes up during the night quite often, so she often comes downstairs to find him pacing around, and makes a pot of tea. Sometimes she’ll go up again after having a cup, and sometimes they fall asleep on the couch together.

#answered asks #clora #long post #tw abuse mention #64's headcanons #pajcali #thank you so much for asking!!

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sixtyfourk · 3 years

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🌹!!

Ahh, thank you!! Okay, for you... you’re going to get my Clora kiss that I’m super embarrassed about but also kind of proud of adjkhfd... it’s from a fic that I wrote back in the summer that is super depressing (they’re soaked from the rain and crying in the car) and I don’t think I’m ever going to finish it, but I’m hoping to write something similar and less depressing for the Clora week day 6 prompt. Anyway, enough preamble... sdhjka...

...

Her mouth is warm against his icy lips, and her frantic breaths heat his lungs, breathing enough for the both of them, and, with a shuddering, gasping breath, he suddenly realizes how cold he really is. He can’t stop shivering, but at least he remembers how to breathe again. She seems startled by his sudden trembling, and pulls away, studying his face with wide, worried eyes. Clive raises a trembling hand to her cheek, and, pulling her back to him, kisses her, hard, suddenly, while he still has some semblance of control over himself. Then control shatters into oblivion, and he bursts into tears.

#clora #I'm just... bad at writing this kind of thing ashjk...#pda #pajcali #answered asks

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sixtyfourk · 4 years

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🌹

(Thank you!! I’ll give you a Clora one ^^ This is from a really angsty oneshot that I just can’t seem to finish... it’s supposed to be a (semi) established relationship, maybe 10-ish years after UF).

“Flora.” Clive reaches towards her. His hand feels like it’s moving through water, but, slowly, it arrives at her cheek. Her face is hot, almost burning, or maybe that’s just his frozen fingers. “Flora, it’s alright. This is… it’s all my fault. Everything is my fault.”

#my fanfiction #clora #I really don't know what to do with this one...#I wrote it back in the summer but I'm still not happy with it #it's not even the good kind of angsty it's just depressing #I'm trying to find some way to make it a little less heavy and then maybe I'll put it up someday #pajcali #answered asks

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sixtyfourk · 3 years

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hello! for the Comfortember prompt I hope Clive/Flora and Anxiety or Protective is ok! don't worry if it ends up angsty, I eat that up too <3

Thank you SO much for asking!! I really didn’t think anyone would ask for Clive/Flora, so I was really excited to get your ask ^^ I wound up using both prompts; I still don’t feel super confident in writing really romance-y romance, so I hope it turned out okay. I’m putting up a link to the story really soon. Thank you so much again for asking!

#answered asks #clora #pajcali

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sixtyfourk · 3 years

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Ahhhh I think the Clora oneshot might take a little longer than I thought, haha...

#64personal #I thought it was almost done #but I'm just not happy with it how it is #so I think I need to add like... a whole new long beginning #to give it more context #that and everything I have right now is angsty #so I want to have something a bit more fluffy at the beginning #I'm sorry pajcali asdfhjkadsf...#I shouldn't have said I'd have it done by today #I think it'll be better if I add this stuff though #here's to hoping it doesn't take a month #I'm almost at spring break and I'm finishing up all my assignments now #so hopefully i'll have more free time to get things done soon

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sixtyfourk · 3 years

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Tagged by @101flavoursofweird, thank you so much!

Rules: write the latest line from your WIP and tag as many people as there are words in the line. make a new post, don’t reblog.

I haven’t written any new fanfics for quite a while, I feel so bad... but I’ve been writing a lot of stuff with me and my friend’s OCs, so here’s a little of my main project here!

This is much more than just a line dfjfhkffd I’m proud of this part, but I’m putting it under the read-more because it’s long, so you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to, haha. I’ll tag @ms-enmystic, @dazais-guardian-angel, @gemstoneslesbian, @kyoukalay, @pajcali, @teaofdestiny, and @shocotate if you would like to do this!

Shirley coughs. “I really do… appreciate you giving me that phone call five years ago. Giving me that chance to be your partner. So I’m just doing the same for you. It’s… repaying a debt, of sorts”

“Can we keep doing that?” Onyx doesn’t quite understand why his face is so warm, but he keeps going. “Helping each other like that? It doesn’t have to be about paying a debt or anything. I just… I deeply appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and...” He looks away; his face is growing so hot, it will be obvious if Shirley looks at him. “You really are more than just my business partner. You’re my… my best friend.”

A best friend, a partner, a…

He doesn’t know.

But he wants to find out.

Even out of the corner of his eye, he can see Shirley’s eyes widen. “Onyx…”

Perhaps it was foolish of him to ever ask such a thing. He shouldn’t have said anything. “Of course, I’m… I’m fine with keeping things to a… a business relationship,” he murmurs, stumbling over his own words.

“Onyx, you’re… you’re so funny.”

Onyx blinks, looking up towards Shirley. His business partner--no, his best friend’s smile is the warmest that he’s ever seen before. “There’s no need for a formal confession.” But Shirley’s hand comes to rest on his shoulder. “But of course we’ll keep working together. Just like we always have. And Onyx… I’m not going to say this often. It’s… difficult for me to say things like this. But you’re my best friend, too.”

Onyx probably looks ridiculous right now, sitting here late at night, inches away from his business partner, grinning like a fool. But he’ll be a fool for Shirley, for his best friend, for…

He can’t say it out loud.

But he’d gladly be a fool for the man he loves the most in this world.

#my writing #i'm sorry this is so long #the fic is 56 pages long right now so it was hard to choose just one line dfjhfkd #this is my magnum opus #dfjkhdfdf #and i wanted an excuse to put a little bit up haha #shirley is uncharacteristically nice here dfjhkdfdffdf #shirnyx #shirley khat #onyx caine #OCs

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sixtyfourk · 3 years

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This is a scene from my “Clive finds Flora in St. Mystere” AU that I posted about here awhile ago. I was working on this scene for @pajcali, and I’m finally posting it here. I tried to make this scene into a complete oneshot to post on Ao3, but I just couldn’t seem to get it right without the context of the larger story, so I think the full version of the scene will work better in a multichapter rather than its own oneshot. This is what I have so far, though, so I hope that it’s better than nothing!

...

It’s far past the time that any sane person should be awake, but Clive’s thoughts run on and on and on. Every sound in the house, every rattle or creak, sets him further on edge, as if he’s already alone again in this place, like he was after Constance died.

As if Flora was already gone.

Clive shivers, and curls into a tighter ball, clutching his pillow to his chest.

It’s ridiculous, that he’s gotten this attached, that he’d miss her so much, when their purported relationship is built on a lie. This whole “engagement”… it had simply been a way to help her out. He’d never been interested… at least, not at first.

Of course, he’d initially come to St. Mystere in search of the fortune, as promised in the letter, but he hardly intended to take the baron’s daughter’s inheritance from her, once he discovered that the Reinhold family fortune belonged to her—especially after he’d discovered the mysterious young woman he’d befriended was the Golden Apple herself.

He’d been ready to leave, then, empty-handed; his week off was soon ending, and he had work to do in London, but he’d been surprised by her plea for help. “They’re not going to let me go unless I leave with somebody,” she’d said, in a quiet yet desperate way. “Can I come with you? Just for a little while, so I can get on my feet. I just want a chance to see what the world outside the village is like. I’ll… I’ll give you the fortune if you help me. I won’t need it after I get settled in.”

The idea was ridiculous. He had information to gather, a job to do, and a justice plot to refine. He didn’t have time to teach a naive aristocrat how to live life outside of her isolated little village, no matter how interesting she was to talk to, no matter how well they’d gotten along during this week.

But somehow, he couldn’t say “no” to her.

(Maybe he didn’t want to say goodbye to the first person he’d been able to truly talk to since Constance died).

He’d refused the money, she’d insisted, and they’d finally agreed to split it, once Flora returned to St. Mystere to obtain it after the allotted time was over. A month, they’d decided—which somehow turned into three months, and then a year, and finally, a nebulous “if… I mean, when I go back to St. Mystere...”

And now, after months of getting over the initial awkwardness of it all, they’ve finally settled into a routine together. Clive’s taught her to drive, and how to do things that he’d always taken for granted, like something as simple as buying something in a store. They work on fixing Future London’s many unfinished constructions together. They search through the archives of the London Times together, on the days when Flora pretends that she forgot to give Clive his lunch before work, and they sneak into the back room together to rifle through the old papers. They’ve discovered so much; they nearly know the whole story behind the Institute explosion now.

And then there’s the more mundane, cozy parts of their lives too, like the way she redecorated the old Dove manor that Clive had been too depressed to do anything about since Constance passed away. The cooking experiments (she’s… she’s not getting worse at cooking, anyway), and the way they explore London and the countryside, seeing the things that Flora had only read about for years, and had never been able to see for herself. Talking together at night over tea, chatting about the past, and the people they’ve lost, and “accidentally” falling asleep on the sofa together, night after night.

Those little things are going to be what he misses the most.

When people (particularly Spring and Cogg) had initially assumed they were married after Clive had first brought Flora to London, Clive had been uncomfortable; after all, they weren’t married, and he would never get that close with another person in a million years. But now, it’s odd to remember that they, in fact, are not married, and that all this was only a means for her to explore the world, and… and a way for him to think about something other than revenge.

He’s finally happy now. The emptiness that had consumed him after his parents and Constance passed… it’s still there, but it’s not as all-consuming, because there’s actually somebody else to think about now, someone to care about instead of only caring for his ideas of revenge. Somebody to take care of, even when he couldn’t care less about taking care of himself.

And through it all, she’s taken care of him too.

The longer he’s around Flora, the more Clive realizes how delusional, how mad he really is, how insane his plans are, which had once seemed so logical to him. Sometimes, he wonders if he even wants to carry them out. He still wants to make them pay for what they did to him, and Flora’s proven that she supports him in that. She wants justice for him too. But she’d never go along with what he had planned, if she knew. She’d never support that kind of destruction, even if it’s the only way to solve anything.

He still wants justice. But he wants something else, now, too…

But that’s not going to happen now, because she’s returning home.

Clive clutches his pillow closer to his chest, burying his face in it and smothering his laughter. He’d been such a fool, to even entertain the idea of… of actually marrying her. To go as far as imagining a future together. She can’t love him, really; he’s too mad for that. He’s unstable, a madman chasing after a dream; he can’t give her the stability that she needs. And even if she did love him, she shouldn’t. Everyone that comes near him is cursed. His parents died. Constance died. And today (or is it yesterday, now? It’s so late…), Flora had come so close to death as well.

He’d never wanted her to get dragged into all of this, but she’d insisted on helping him, and, truthfully, he’d liked having her help. He’d enjoyed having somebody to talk to, to work together with as he moves towards justice. But yesterday…

He’d come so close to losing her. To losing everything.

#clora #my fanfiction #I'm sorry that they don't even really talk in this ahaha...#and that it's not a complete story #it's mostly just clive angsting #it's more of a summary of the whole au in a way #I think the scene will work better after the build-up of the multichapter #and I'm finally working on the first chapter now and have a pretty decent plan #so I hope it won't take forever!

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